Ian Cowie was named Consumer Affairs Journalist of the Year in the
London Press Club Awards 2012. He has been head of personal finance at
Telegraph Media Group since 2008, having been personal finance editor
since 1989. He joined the paper in 1986. He is @iancowie on Twitter.

Without tax cuts the Tories are doomed (again)

Oliver Letwin has played a pivotal role in setting Tory tax policy (Photo: Philip Hollis)

A confident speech, delivered with apparent emotion by David Cameron at the weekend will not be enough to fill the soggy hole at the heart of the Tories' General Election campaign – the lack of substantial fiscal policy.

Tax is the point at which politics condenses into more than hot air and hits you in the pocket. Many voters are tired of being whacked where it hurts by Gordon Brown and HM Revenue & Customs. They have little interest in political theory but would very much like to be allowed to keep more of what they earn.

One of the genuinely unusual features of the British public is a deep-rooted distrust of political enthusiasm. This is often presented as a bad thing but can also prove a great strength. For example, it is one reason why we have never suffered from national socialism, as in Hitler's Germany, or right-wing demagoguery, as in McCarthy's America.

Living in post-ideological times, probably the most powerful seven words in the British electorate's political discourse are: "Let's give the other lot a go."

But during the worst financial crisis in living memory, many voters are reluctant to let go of nurse for fear of finding something worse. Tax cuts would be a tangible reason to vote for change. But, despite repeated makeovers during the course of more than a decade in the wilderness, the Tories have failed to explain why we would be better off voting for them.

Thirteen years after the Conservatives lost power to Labour, they have yet to spell out how they will reverse stealth taxes that seem set to be Gordon Brown's sole lasting legacy to the English language at such enormous cost to our economy. The Conservatives appear wedded to a complacent belief that there is no need for the Opposition to win the Election, they can merely wait for the Government to lose.

If so, opinion polls showing the Tories' dwindling lead should serve as a wake up call. No wonder the pound is suffering its sharpest fall in more than a year as foreign exchange markets fear a hung Parliament.

Then, as now, the limp hand of Oliver Letwin hung over Tory tax policy like a damp shroud. Now, as then, failure to spell out to voters what is in it for them will lead to electoral doom for the Conservatives.